On a morning to celebrate intangibles at Minute Maid Park, Astros manager-in-waiting Bo Porter phoned in from the great beyond (well, Philadelphia) trying to make a point about that very thing.

He wound up making the most tangible point of the whole day.

Porter talked about his current job as third-base coach with the playoff-bound Washington Nationals and how a roster of homegrown players exemplifies a joint commitment to winning that exceeds that of a mercenary bunch.

What he didn’t mention — obviously, given his future loyalty — is that those players are really, really good. The Astros don’t have a group that begins to resembles that nine.

So manage ’em up.
This is absolutely no knock on Porter, who was roundly praised for his leadership and baseball savvy especially when it comes to the outfield and baserunning. But there’s a case to be made that the decision on who will play center field next year, while less celebrated, will be more important to this club.

The subject of evaluating just how much influence a manager has isn’t something that’s been well-established through scholarship.

“No one’s ever really been able to figure that out,” Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow said. “I believe that there are decisions that a manager makes that affect the outcome of a game during a game. You can probably try to figure that out. Maybe it’s five, maybe it’s 10 over the course of the season. But more importantly, all the intangible factors that a manager brings.”

The challenge Porter faces is great. He is starting in a worse place than Brad Mills, though with a better-than-anticipated talent trajectory.

While team owner Jim Crane asked fans to be patient with Luhnow when the general manager took over in November, there was a decidedly different tone from Luhnow on Porter.

“Patience is an interesting word because patience means it takes time,” Luhnow said. “One of the reasons we’re hiring Bo Porter is that we’re working as hard as we can to minimize that time.

“He’s been part of the Nationals’ ascent, and that’s a model that we look at as the Astros and say we’d like to get to that point where we can go from a team that has a losing record to a team that can win a division and compete for a championship like the Nationals are in position to do this year.”

The story of the 2012 Nationals, who already have a playoff spot secured and are on the verge of NL East supremacy, starts with the leading man. Davey Johnson, Porter’s superior on the bench, is fun. He’s recognizable. He’s a nice and easy narrative.

The story of the 2012 Nationals is about Adam LaRoche’s career year at age 32. It’s even more about Strasburg and 21-game winner Gio Gonzalez and Zimmermann backing up Johnson’s boast about Washington’s top three pitchers compared to Philadelphia’s.

Without talent, the Astros will go nowhere, and there is reason to believe, through trades and eventually through No. 1 draft picks, that the talent will be there.

But for now, it has to be about the intangibles.

“The biggest challenge would be getting everybody on board with the direction and the vision that the leadership group has put together,” Porter said.

The results of that vision are much more on the rest of that leadership group for the next couple of years than they are on him.